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What's The Last Movie You’ve Seen?

Saw "Black Swan." I liked it the best out of all the people I went with even though I initially wanted to see it the least. Score one for low expectations.
 
Of the movies I've seen this year, right now, I'd rank them...

1) The Social Network
2) The Fighter
3) Inception
4) True Grit (I wish it resonated with me more like it did for some on the board)
5) Black Swan
6) The Town

I still need to see The Kids are Alright, The King's Speech and a few others but this is where I stand right now.
 
Watched The Book of Eli last night. Thought it was going to be like a water world type movie. Not the case. Very good movie with a great message. At least for me.
 
KrazeeEyezKilla said:
Of the movies I've seen this year, right now, I'd rank them...

1) The Social Network
2) The Fighter
3) Inception
4) True Grit (I wish it resonated with me more like it did for some on the board)
5) Black Swan
6) The Town

I still need to see The Kids are Alright, The King's Speech and a few others but this is where I stand right now.
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I'm sure we will have a separate thread at some point about the best films of 2010.

Personally I feel no obligation to watch The King's Speech even though it hits virtually every Oscar-bait checkbox imaginable. I have a suspicion my list of favorite films from the year would be significantly less "traditionally Oscar-contender centric" than yours, although I do believe The Social Network was the best film this year from what I saw. Then again, it's sort of a back-handed compliment because I think this was a very shallow year for film.
 
Sirkickyass said:
I'm sure we will have a separate thread at some point about the best films of 2010.

Personally I feel no obligation to watch The King's Speech even though it hits virtually every Oscar-bait checkbox imaginable. I have a suspicion my list of favorite films from the year would be significantly less "traditionally Oscar-contender centric" than yours, although I do believe The Social Network was the best film this year from what I saw. Then again, it's sort of a back-handed compliment because I think this was a very shallow year for film.
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I don't see many movies any more. Other than the ones I've listed here, the only other one I can think of that I've seen in theaters this year is Cyrus. Perhaps I'm missing one or two but you get the point. What are some of the less traditional ones you've seen this year that you'd recommend?

BTW, I have Terribly Happy, Let the Right One In, and 51 Birch Street arriving via Netflix tomorrow.

Question about Netflix...how does streaming via Wii work exactly? In other words, I already have the three-at-a-time policy going and my three will arrive tomorrow so will it let me stream movie after movie without restrictions with my current plan even though I already have three in hand? Having said that, should I just lower it to one-at-a-time and stream anything that I want to watch that's available and get only ones in hand that aren't available via streaming? Seems more sensible.
 
KrazeeEyezKilla said:
What are some of the less traditional ones you've seen this year that you'd recommend?
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I actually tried to create a thread that had a top 9 list but it didn't let me post it because my request timed out and then it deleted my list. It was laborious to put together so maybe I'll try again later. As a preview, I put "Solitary Man" in the #2 spot.

51 Birch Street
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If you don't like it, we must fight.

I already have the three-at-a-time policy going and my three will arrive tomorrow so will it let me stream movie after movie without restrictions with my current plan even though I already have three in hand?
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Yes. Netflix is awesome.
 
KrazeeEyezKilla said:
But should I cut it down to one at a time and just stream as much as I can since it won't affect cost?
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Sounds like a personal choice to me. Depends on how convenient that option is for you. Only about 15% of the films I have in queue are also streaming-ready so doing that would really cut down on my "pace." If there's a higher proportion for you or you don't care about "churn" maybe it makes sense.
 
Stickler said:
What is Solitary Man? The movie imdb lists as starring Michael Douglas?
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That's the correct movie. It's fantastic. Great performances by an all-around excellent cast (Douglas, Sarandon, DeVito, Jenna Fischer, Mary Louise-Parker, and Jesse Eisenberg) and a truly insightful script with a truly great ending (which I will not spoil).

https://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100609/REVIEWS/100609976

For an actor with so many film credits, Michael Douglas hasn't played many conventional heroes. Yes, he did those “Romancing the Stone” roles, and he's been more memorable as a villain (“Wall Street”), but his strongest roles are as sinners: not big or bad enough to be villains, more ordinary men, smart, glib, conniving, trying to get by on short dues. Here is where he best uses his considerable screen presence. And he gets better at it as he grows older, because his characters keep on sinning when they just don't have the stamina for it anymore.

In “Solitary Man,” he plays Ben Kalman, once a regional celebrity as “New York's Honest Car Dealer.” Ben is good-looking, still has that great head of hair, and is as persuasive as — well, as a good car dealer. In business, he can sense what car to put you in. In sex, he can sense what mood to put you on. He closes a lot of deals.

He isn't solitary by choice but by default. He cheated on his good wife, Nancy (Susan Sarandon). He disappointed their daughter, Susan (Jenna Fischer) one time too many. He cheats on his current companion, Jordan (Mary-Louise Parker), in a particularly unforgivable way. He uses charm and the offer of his experience in life to charm Daniel Cheston (Jesse Eisenberg), a college student, and then betrays him. He has lied to his customers so often that, as everyone knows, “Honest Ben Kalman” spent time behind bars.

Yet he's charming and persuasive. He looks like a winner until you look too close. “Solitary Man” follows him for several days after he agrees to accompany Jordan's daughter, Allyson (Imogen Poots), as she goes for a college interview. This is the same school he attended. He knows the dean, which may be a help.

You want to like Ben. He works on encouraging that. When he was younger and less of a sinner, he must have been good to know, and there's an effective character in “Solitary Man” who suggests that. This is his old buddy Jimmy (Danny DeVito), who still runs a greasy spoon diner. On campus, Ben befriends the naive Cheston with man-of-the-world advice about sex, success and how to sell yourself. With women, Ben's approach is solicitous: Do some men misunderstand you? Are your qualities recognized? What are you getting out of the transaction?

The film is all about Ben Kalman, but one of the strengths of Michael Douglas' performance is that he isn't playing a character. He's playing a character who is playing a character. Ben's life has become performance art. You get the feeling he never goes offstage. He sees few women he doesn't try seducing. As a car dealer, he was also in the seduction trade. His business was selling himself. At a dealership, it's hard to move a lemon. What about in life when you need a recall?
What happens with Ben and the people in his life, especially the women, I should not hint at here. The movie depends on our fascination as we see what lengths this man will go to.

Reading in the gossip sheets that Douglas in years past was led astray by lust, we suspect that some of his performance is based on experience. Why is a man a serial seducer? To prove to himself that he can, which to a woman is not a compelling reason to be seduced.

This is a smart, effective film, a comedy in many ways even though it's bookended with reasons for Ben to see it as a potential tragedy. It's a serious comedy, perceptive, nuanced, with every supporting performance well-calibrated to demonstrate to Ben that he can run but he can no longer hide. One of the best is by DeVito, who has been standing behind his counter for years and is perfectly content. He doesn't have that hunger that gnaws at Ben.

Imogen Poots is good, too, as the girl going away to school. She could sell Honest Ben the Brooklyn Bridge, and he would think he was talking her into it. As the college-interview trip begins to fall apart, so does Ben's shaky financial future, and he has a meeting with a banker (Richard Schiff) that plays out with relentless logic.

Here is one of Michael Douglas' finest performances. Because the other characters, no matter what they think, never truly engage Ben Kalman, he's on that stage by himself. Everyone else is in the audience. Douglas plays Ben as charismatic, he plays him shameless, he plays him as brave, and very gradually, he learns to play him as himself. That's the only role left.
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